Feed-water-heater arrangement



. 1,633,947 June 28, I -r MCKEE FEED WATER HEATER ARRANGEMENT Filed March 19. 1924 2 CL l l' /V/4L.ZM9 K65 YINVENTOR.

I BY' a I713 ATTORNEY.

Patented J une 28, 1927.

' UNITED i STATES PATENT OFFICE.

NEAL TBIMIBLE MGKEE, or; BEonxvrLLE, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO THE surna- HEATER COMPANY, on NEW YORK, 1a.. Y.

FEED-WATER-HEATER ARRANGEMENT.

Application filed March 19, 1924. Serial No. 700,276.

effective manner and a more perfectaction' and longer life of the device is assured.

The inventionis described in the following specification which is to be read in connection with the accompanying drawing. In this drawing Fig. 1 illustrates-my invention applied to a locomotive, merely enough of the latter being shown to make clear the relation of the inventio'n to other parts of the locomotive; Fig.2 is a central section in a planeparallel to the paper through the valve designated in Fig. 1 by reference numeral 7 and Fig. 3 is a similar section through a second valve designated by reference numeral 10 in Fig. 1. a

The invention is illustrated as applied to a locomotive equipped with a so-called closed feed water heater. This feed water heater is of any desired type and may be placed in any desired location on the locomotive. For illustrative purposes I show one well known form and position of the heater. According to present practice the heater .1 is usually placed in a transverse position at the front end top of the smokebox ahead of the smokestack. The heater forms no part of my present invention and may, therefore, be

very briefly described. It comprises a set of tubes 2, through'which the water delivered through pipe 3 by the pump 4 flows. The arrangement of the, heater 1s such that the water circulates to and fro through sev- I condensate from the heater eral groups of these pipes 2 being finally delivered from the last group through an outlet connection to the pipe 5 which carries it to the boiler. The outside of the pipes 2 is exposed to exhaust steam taken off at any convenient point from the main exhaust steam current onits way to the stack and carried by pipe 6 through the special valve 7 and connection 8 to the heater. Provisions ing away the ut it will be unnecessary for the present purpose to enter into a description 6 this feature.

The operation of this apparatus as far as are, of course, made for car described. is as follows:

.The pump 4 delivers water through ipe 3 through pipe 5 and check valve 9; on its passage through the heater this water is heated by the exhaust steam reaching the heater through the pipe 6.

It has been found in practice that during periods when the pump is not operating, the water, which remains in the heater, has its temperature raised to an undesirably high point so that scale is deposited in the heater and becomes rather hard due to the high temperature. This high temperature is due to the fact that exhaust steam stillreaches the heater through pipe 6 at such periods. This exhaust steam is at a pressure material- 1y above atmospheric and as the water in the heater is under pressure fairly high temperatures result In valve 9 is not always entirely tight and a slight leakage past it may occur. In the arrangement hitherto used this leakage also finds its way into the heater and helps to raise the temperature in the feed water heater.

According to my invention the rise of the temperatures in the heater during periods of idleness above the desired degree is prevented and the formation of hard scale avoided. To this end I carry the steam from pipe 6 through a Valve 7, presently to be described, and insert an additional valve 10 into the line delivering the feed water to the boiler.

The valve 7 is shown in greater detail in Fig. 2. The valve proper 11 opens in the direction toward the heater and is kept on its seat by spring 12-. The spindle 13 extends upward through cover 14 and carries at its upper end apiston 15 reciprocable in cylinder 16; a pipe 17 leads from the steam supply pipe 18, which carries steam to the pump, to the underside of piston 15. The spring 12 is strong enough to keep valve 11 seated againstthe pressure of the exhaust steam but is not strong enough to keep it seated when liv.e steam from pipe 18 is delivered to the under side of piston 15. The result is that as long as the pump is in action, i. e., as long as steam is supplied to pipe 18, the valve 11 is'held open but as soon as the steam is cut off from pipe 17 by means of the shutoff valve 19, spring 12 will Seat valve 11. By this arrangement exhaust steam is prevented from heating the heater contents when the pump is idle.

In Fig. 3 the detail of valve 10 is illustrated. The valve opens in the direction addition the check I 21 the annular portion 27 seats against the seat 28 and interrupts communication from 23 to the atmosphere. The result of this arrangement is that as long as the pump is acting, steam from pipe 18 holds the valve open and closes the vent 24:. A spring 30 l1ea1's against the shoulder 31 of the stem and against the top 32 of the annular space surrounding the valve stem. This spring is in compression and tends to close the valve, but is not strong enoughto close it against the steam pressure under the piston. When this steam supply is cut off, however, it will close it. When the control valve 19 is closed the valve will be seated and the vent 24 will c0mmunicate with the atmosphere and allow any leakage past the check valve to escape. The leakage past the boiler check valve WlllIlOfmally always be small enough so that vent 24 can take care of it and not enough pressure will ever build up under the valve to raise it. In this way I prevent leakage from the check valve ever reaching the feed water heater and there causing vundesirable temperatures.

first pipe, a valved steam-pipe supplying steam to the pump, a valve in said second pipe, resilient means tending to keep said valve closed, steam-actuated means to open it in opposition to said resilient means, a pipe connecting said steam actuated means to the pipe supplying steam to the pump so that the steam actuated means receive steam only when the pump does, a valve in the pipe supplying heating steam to the heater, resilient means tending to close it, steam actuated means holding it open in opposition to the resilient means, and a conduit to supply steam to the last named steam actuated means at times when the pump is receiving steam; whereby no'steam reaches theheater at times when the pump is not receiving steam.

2. In apparatus of the class described, the combination of a feedwater heater for heating water for a boiler; a pipe to $11 ply Water to it; a second pipe to carry t e water from the heater to the boiler; a steam driven pump delivering water to the first pipe; a valved steam-pipe supplying steam to the pump; a check-valve in said second pipe; a second valve in said second pipe adapted in one position to close communication from the second pipe to the boiler and at the same time to vent the second pipe to'the atmosphere, and in its other position to open communication to the boiler and shut the vent to the atmosphere; resilient means tending to put'said last named valve into its firstnamed position; steam actuated means capable of overcoming said resilient means and of throwing the valve into its second-named position; said steam actuated means receiving steam from a point'of the valved steam pipe between the valve and the pump;

NEAL TRIMBLE McKEE. 

